Giants' Arms Are Envy of League

Published 4:00 am, Friday, August 25, 2000

THE NEWS is spreading about the Giants' remarkable pitching staff. It has the league's lowest ERA since the All-Star break, and overall, it is fourth-best.

One reason is that they're spreading the victories. With five quality starters, and some would say six, the Giants have a superb chance of getting at least 10 wins from five different starters, a feat rarely seen this side of the Yankees or Braves.

And if you think deep, quality starting pitching translates into playoff material, you're right: Eleven of the last 12 teams to register at least 10 wins from their top five starters have reached the postseason, the only exception being the 1984 Dodgers. Of those 11, four won the World Series (1999 Yankees, '98 Yankees, '86 Mets, '85 Royals).

While in San Francisco, the Giants have never had five starters with 10 or more wins (the five-man rotation is a relatively new phenomenon). But on three occasions they've had five pitchers (relievers included) with at least 10:

POWER AND PRODUCTION: What Todd Helton of the Rockies is doing, challenging .400, is amazing enough. The fact he's a power hitter (31 homers) to boot gives him additional kudos. Only twice in the past 60 seasons have we seen a player hit .380 and above with at least 30 homers, and both times it was Ted Williams. Teddy Ballgame cracked 38 clouts when he hit .388 in 1957, and in '41, he had 37 dingers to go with his legendary .406 average.

CRIME DOG STILL PAYING OFF: Tampa Bay's Fred McGriff needs three more home runs to become the second player to hit 200 home runs in both leagues. McGriff has 214 National League homers and 197 in the American League. Frank Robinson is the only other player to do it (Mark McGwire needs 11 homers for the Cardinals to accomplish the feat). It would be the fourth major milestone reached this season for McGriff. He already had his 2,000th hit, 400th home run and 2,000th game played.

NEVER TOO OLD DEPT.: At 35 years old, knuckleball pitcher Steve Sparks of the Tigers became the oldest pitcher since 1958 to throw his first big-league shutout when he blanked the Mariners last week.

Sparks was 12 days younger than the Orioles' Hoyt Wilhelm was when he tossed not only a shutout, but a no-hitter, at the Yankees on Sept. 20, 1958. Wilhelm, also a knuckleballer and a Hall of Famer, is the last pitcher to no-hit the Yankees.

POP GOES THE YANKEES: David Justice and Glenallen Hill, relative newcomers to the Yankees family, have endeared themselves hitting a combined 25 homers in just 230 at- bats.

Justice has 13 homers in 160 ABs, and Hill has 12 in 70 ABs. In the Yankees storied history, only one Yankee has ever collected 20 homers in less than 250 ABs in one season: Johnny Blanchard had 21 homers in 243 at-bats in 1961.

SECOND CAREER: With his pitching performance on Tuesday, Brent Mayne of the Rockies became the first position player in 32 years (Rocky Colavito in 1968) to be credited with a win. According to research by ESPN, the last position player to start and win a game as a pitcher was Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx. In the final year of his career, and as a member of the Phillies, Foxx beat the Reds on Aug. 19, 1945. Foxx, who hit 534 homers in his career, pitched 22 2/3 innings in '45, allowing just four runs for a 1.59 ERA. Incidentally, Foxx's ERA that year was the lowest in the league among any pitchers with at least 20 innings.

RANDOM NUMBERS: Home-run historian David Vincent reports that Ellis Burks this week became the seventh S.F. Giants batter to have consecutive multihomer games. Barry Bonds has done it twice: July 30, 1999, and July 15, 1994. . . . Carlos Delgado is having a monster year, but it's not as superlative as I stated last week. If he has a 35-homer, 110-RBI, .360 season, it would be the third time that's happened in the AL since 1940. . . . With 95 RBIs, Anaheim's Mo Vaughn is a lock to be the first Angel to have successive 100-RBI seasons since Wally Joyner in 1986-87. . . . Carl Everett has 29 home runs for the Red Sox. The last Red Sox outfielders to hit 30 were Tony Armas (43) and Dwight Evans (32) in 1984.

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